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New Year's resolutions from a tech-savvy parent

By Steve Fox, Digital First Media

Posted:
01/03/2014 09:13:45 AM MST

Updated:
01/03/2014 09:13:50 AM MST

How will parenting and technology cross paths for you in 2014? (Thinkstock)

I've never been a big one for resolutions, but when it comes to parenting and technology, I thought it might be a good idea to put together a rough list of goals for 2014. Here's a brief list of my tech-based New Year's resolutions:

Play more video games

As always, I will keep trying to learn new technology and that includes video games. I gave my 15-year-old son a second controller as a Christmas gift and he's pretty excited to get me playing some of his games with him. I know I've said it before, but I'm going to start finding time this year to start playing with him. While I'm not a big fan of some of his games – he also received Grand Theft Auto as a Christmas gift – I think it's important to spend time with him on his turf.

When I mentioned to my son over the holidays that one of my resolutions was to sign up for a Snapchat account, he gave me a hard time, as 15-year-olds are known to do with their dads. He said that if I signed up, my contacts list would consist of him – implying that the technology is one used solely by teenagers. And, that seems to be one of the bigger themes out there. Part of the appeal to Snapchat, an app that allows you to send messages and photos, is that whatever you send disappears almost immediately after it's received – an attractive option for teens. This seems like a good solution to my preaching about “don't post stupid things on Facebook.” In fact, Snapchat seems to be propelling the latest round of Facebook-is-dead stories.

While the privacy nature of Snapchat is appealing, be careful. There are reports this week of Snapchat being the latest victim of a hacking attack. But Snapchat isn't alone.

Teach my children – and parents – about cybersecurity

This is a pretty big resolution and will be part of a series of upcoming posts from me. Living and working in a technology-driven world, I find myself having to not only teach my children about being responsible and smart when operating with information, but my parents as well. My parents were recently the victims of a phishing scam. Luckily, they weren't hurt financially, but it took a while to change all their credit and banking information.

And, they're not alone. One report says that phishing scams touched more than 37.3 million people last year. The impact of hacking scams was driven home over the holidays with the cyberattack on Target. My resolution for the coming year is to give my children – and parents – the tools and knowledge to try and protect themselves against cyberattacks. It's all about controlling the impulse to click and to questioning everything you receive. More on this to come, so stay tuned.

And, finally I resolve this year to find ways this year to interact with you, the audience! When I first started contributing to the ParentHackers blog in September, it was my hope that the blog would create a conversation. I want to know what you are thinking. Communication needs to be two-ways! I'm still hoping that will happen so please feel free to weigh in on my blog posts' comment section, our Facebook page or on Twitter, @parenthackers. Also, feel free to shoot me an e-mail at stevejfox@gmail.com. Hope to hear from you soon!